Am I the only one who is confused about continents?

  For one, how many continents are there, really?

  The most conservative definition I have seen defines four continents:
America, Eurasia, Africa and Oceania. (For some reason Antarctica is not
included in the list of continents in many traditional definitions. For
instance, when I went to primary school, they didn't mention Antarctica
in the list of continents, although they had a classic list of five
continents.)

  The most liberal definition may include as many as seven continents:
North-America, South-America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Antarctica.

  So which is it? Or which combination is the "official" one?

  Also the very definition of "continent" seems rather fuzzy. If it's
defined in a purely geographical sense, in other words, "a big mass of
land completely surrounded by water, and much bigger than what can be
considered an island" (if we define Greenland as the largest island,
and anything larger than that a continent), then there would be five
continents: America, Eurasia, Africa, Oceania and Antarctica. (In this
sense the most conservative definition would be almost right, except for
dismissing Antarctica.)

  However, almost nobody splits continents like that. Most prominently,
Europe and Asia are considered separate continents. I have hard time
figuring out why. It seems to be more a geopolitical division than
anything else.

  Dividing America into two continents seems to be a matter of taste:
It's divided into two large parts joined by a very narrow piece of land.
It's *almost* like the two large parts were completely surrounded by
water, so some consider America actually two continents, simply joined
by a narrow piece of land. One could also see some geopolitical division
here as well, comparable to the Europe-Asia division.

  And one more thing: Is it Oceania or Australia? When I went to primary
school, it was Oceania. However, many call it Australia. The former
definition would include all the islands to belong to the "continent
of Oceania", while the latter definition would exclude the islands from
belonging to the continent.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message